Oz Reimagined | |||||||||
edited by John Joseph Adams & Douglas Cohen | |||||||||
47North, 378 pages | |||||||||
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A review by Nathan Brazil
"The same thing that is going to happen to your witches now that I'm here," Oz said, snatching the coin away. "Progress!"
"That doesn't make any sense," Gigi said.'
This collection put me in mind of a scene in Warlock by Jim Starlin, where the lead character sees mountains of trash being built
by clowns. The mountains keep tumbling, and the reason is that someone is putting a gem into the pile. The gem being the Warlock
comic itself. Here, the gems are those stories which either offer something fresh and interesting, or which manage to stay true
to the enduring imagery of L. Frank Baum. Among the latter are "The Great Zeppelin Heist Of Oz" which details how the evil
wizard first arrived and came to power, "The Veiled Shanghai," where we meet a Chinese version of Dorothy in an oppressed
Shanghai in 1919, "The Cobbler Of Oz," charmingly features a winged monkey with stunted wings, and her quest to fly
again, "Off To See The Emperor," is an ingenious story where a young Dorothy shows a young L. Frank Baum how to perceive the
Yellow Brick Road, and "Beyond The Naked Eye," presents the classic combination of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion
and the Tinman as the last four contestants in a reality show. It is this story which contains one of the better lines in
the book -- never trust anyone who pretends to be flawless. Sadly, not all the stories fare so well as those listed
above. "Emeralds To Emeralds, Dust To Dust" features a lesbian Dorothy investigating a murder in the slums of Oz. "The
Boy Detective Of Oz" shoehorns Orlando from Tad Williams's Otherland series into a virtual Oz, which should be enormous fun
but somehow misses the mark. "Dorothy Dreams" gives us an elderly and infirm Dorothy which, by the normal standards of
Simon R. Green, is distinctly lacking. "Dead Blue" drags a cyborg Tinman and a tech savvy Dorothy into the modern age,
and in the process loses whatever charm these characters might have had. "One Flew Over The Rainbow" is perhaps the most
controversial inclusion, containing as it does scenes of violence and rape. Not something that will sit easily with the
Oz of most Baum readers's imagination.
Oz Reimagined is a collection which turned out to be more spills than thrills, and overall less than I'd hoped for. There
were some surprisingly lackluster inclusions from authors who can normally do much better. Having said that, anyone who goes
into this with eyes wide open, and not expecting to be transported back to the classic world of Oz, will find plenty of
sparks. Quite how much value there is in those stories which reimagine Baum's characters to such an extent that they are
effectively different characters, is another question. Some readers will appreciate the approach, others may find it about
as authentic as the adventures of Jane Bond.
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